Now, if you write ferociously to market in genres you don’t much care for, or you’re doing non-fiction, you’re not my target for the question above.
But assuming you’re writing long form fiction (novels, series), do you go back and re-read your own works for pleasure, every now and then? Sure, you might find the occasional overlooked typo, but that’s just a side benefit. What I’m talking about is the world you built and its people — do you like to visit?
I’ll start. While I notice my less-experienced-writer infelicities occasionally (not necessarily in places where a reader would) –or the decisions I made about X which precluded the narrative from exploring Y — I’ve come to live with them as if they were created by someone else, and not under my control any longer. They seem immutable at this point, and if anything that makes the world and the characters more real to me. They’re friends, now, not persons subject to my whimsy. I know what’s going to happen to them later, for the completed series, and I have some active speculations about that for the ongoing ones.
I like to visit, I will not tell a lie. It’s comforting. If they were real, I’d know them better than anyone else, even family.
One of the reasons I’m working so hard on the new series is to bring in a whole new world and its people to keep me company. Spinning out bits of books in my head, some of which are fixed on paper, is like playing god.
So, am I a nut-job, or is this a more general tic? Fess up, now.
Mad Genius Club 
11 responses to “Do you read your own stories?”
Yes. My own books, particularly my story collections, are my comfort reading. I write exactly what I want to read.
Same here. Why would I write something I wouldn’t want to read?
Well….. I go back looking for some piece of information I need for whatever I’m working on, and then read too much. Does that count?
I go back to catch up with friends, to watch families grow, and to make sure I carry details over if they are not on my series info sheets. (How many seagulls did Pekka have? This becomes important in a pending short story.)
Yes. My excuse is “I’m looking for information” but then I keep reading. Occasionally it’ll be because i need to get back into the head of a specific character. And sometimes I just read for pleasure.
I totally read my own books for fun, and to remember what was said back then between the characters. That’s the whole reason I wrote them in the first place. My story, told about the people that I like, and it goes the way I want it to.
This does not mean that Karen Myers is not bananas, of course, but it does mean she’s not the only one. ~:D
Gotta like a well-qualified caveat… 🙂
I’m too embarrassed to do it intentionally, but not long ago, I did go back and reread the fanfic thing I wrote a while back, and actually enjoyed it far more than I was expecting to.
Definitely guilty as charged.
Absolutely! Like many of the other commentators, I go back to verify a piece of information and end up reading the rest of the book.
Um. It takes time to heal.
I mean, I liked the story when I was writing it, but the edit process is painful and scarring, and by the time I have done the 14th copyedit pass, I’m as sick of it as if I’d been forced to eat a favourite food to the point of nausea.
It takes time to stop wincing at the sight of the words, and be able to enjoy the story.